"Happy Haunting" Sign--Day 1 of the Nameless Halloween Series

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Don't you just love Halloween?  All the silly fun of dressing up, decorating the house, eating strange-looking foods...


There are so many fun things to do for  Halloween that I want to dedicate all of October to Halloween projects!  I'm going to try to post something most days, so cross your fingers for me.  It's a lot more blogging than I'm used to, but there's just so many projects I want to do, and of course I want to share them with you!

(I'm trying to come up with a fun name for my Halloween extravaganza, but all I've got so far is "Days of  Halloween."  Can anyone help me out with a fun title?) 

Anyway, first on my list of Halloween crafts is this "Happy Haunting" sign.

 

I'm really happy with how this turned out--Mr. MadeIt even loves it.  He told me-- repeatedly, and without my even asking for his opinion--that he likes it.  Which means he likes it A LOT.  (Wo-hoo!)

And to make this project even better, it was practically free.  (Ah, I love practically-free craft projects.)

Here's what you need:

some wood--I  used a 5" by 15" board  from a pallet my dad had hanging around

black craft paint

orange craft paint

sandpaper

chalk

my templates, or you could make your own.  The font I used was Mesquite Std.  (I'm putting my templates at the bottom of this post.)

normal painting supplies--brushes, something to protect your work surface (which I forgot about when I took this picture), etc

Your first step is to lightly sand your board.  You want your board to still be rough; just make sure you aren't going to be skewered with splinters.

Next step:  Paint it black.  And then paint it orange.  (This is so the black can show through when you distress the board later.)  How thick you make your orange layer is up to you.  You can still see some black through my orange coat, which I think adds to the old/distressed feel I'm going for.

Next, transfer the words from the template onto your board.  I used the same method for this project as I did for the Mother's Day signs that I made. 

 

(I love using that trick.)

Now you just paint in your letters with black.  

The last step is to distress your sign.  Pull out your sandpaper again and have at it.  Focus on the corners and edges, since those are the surfaces that get the most wear and tear through normal handling.  Feel free to sand down to bare wood in some places.

If you get a little too excited about the whole distressing process (like I did)  and decide that you took off too much paint, you can fix it.  Just touch up the paint, being sure to blend out around the edges so your touch-ups aren't noticeable.

And that's all there is to it!  Now you just have to choose the best place to display your fabulous (new) old sign.  I sat mine on top of  our front door (on the inside) so we will see it on our way out and be inspired for our Halloween activities.  

Happy crafting!  And Happy Halloween!

For these templates, the words are  sized to fit on their own 8.5" by 11" paper.

Right click on each picture, save it to your computer, and print.